Annunciator time-caller for railroad-trains



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J, J. COWHIG. ANNUNOIATOR TIME'GALLEB, FOR RAILROADTRAIN'S. I ,No. 568,430. Patented Sept. 29; 1896.

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' (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 J. J. COWHIG.

ANNUNGIATOR TIME CALLER FOB. RAILROAD TRAINS. No. 568,430. Patented Sept. 29, 1896.

UNITED STATE PATENT Grinch,

JOHN J. COWHIG, OF MANASSAS, VIRGINIA.

ANNUNCIATOR TIME-CALLER FOR RAILROAD-TRAINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 568,430, dated September 29, 1896.

7 Application filed February 25,1896. Serial No. 580,662. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN J. OOWHIG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Manassas, in the county of Prince William and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Annunciator Time-Callers for Railroad-Trains; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention is a railway-annunciator designed to be used at railway-stations; and it consists of a board having a clock face and hands, lettered sliding paddles, the dropboard, and an alarm-bell, the latter two operated by electricity and a switch.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a face view of my invention with the dropboard up. Fig. 2 is a face view of my invention with the drop-board down. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view.

My invention is described as follows:

A is the board. a is the clock face and hands. I

B is the drop-board having on one side The next train leaves at or words indicating any fact which it is desired to convey, and on the other side of the board are the words All aboard, or words giving any desired directions, and the lower part of the board A is provided with the word For and lettered slide-paddles a as shown, so that when the drop-board B is up the annunciator will read The next train leaves at --for---, and when the drop-board B is down the annunciator will read: All aboard for and when the board is so down the bell fcontinues to ring all the time that it is so down, or

until the operator throws the switch onto point 2. Said drop-board B is provided with arms I), hinged at b.

The board A is provided near its upper end with magnets d, while the rear face of the drop-board B is provided with an armature d, which comes in contact with the magnets d when the drop-board is up, or the dropboard 13 may be held up by an armatured pivoted catch, which catch may be raised to the board by a magnet vitalized by a magnetic current. Thus with this arrangement an open-circuit battery can be used instead of a closed-circuit battery.

The front face of the board A is provided with sockets e and the front face of the dropboard B is provided with pins 6, which fall into the sockets c When said board B drops. To the upper part of the board A is secured an alarm-bell f. i

The magnets d, armature d, sockets 6, pins 6, and bell f, are all connected with the battery G, and operated by means of the switch H. The switch may be situated at any reasonable distance from the annunciator, preferably on the table of the station-agent, so that he may, announce All aboard and ring the bell f without leaving his desk.

The annunciator is operated as follows: The hands are set by the operator, indicating the time when the next train is to leave, or they may be arranged to be set by electricity, the arm 1 thrown on the point 2, the dropboard raised until its armature d comes in contact with the magnets d. The electric current then immediately runs from the battery G through the wire 4, arm 1, point 2, wire 6 through the magnets d, wire 7, and back to the battery G, and as long as the arm 1 is kept on 2 this circuit is kept up, and the armature d is held in contact with the magnets d, and consequently the drop-board B is held up. "When the train is readyto be filled with passengers, the operator changes the arm 1 (H) to the point 3. This breaks the circuit between the armature d and magnets d, and the drop-board falls, the pins e drop into the sockets 6. Then the electric circuit leaves the battery G, traverses the wire 4, arm 1, enters the point 3, follows wire 8, passes through the sockets e and pins c, then follows wire 9 through bell f, then wire 10 through wire 6, magnets d, wire '7, back to the battery G, and as long as the board is down the bell continues to ring. Vhen the arm 1 stands between the points 2 and 3, as shown in Fig. 3, both circuits are broken.

It is evident to an electrician that by an additional electric current the drop-board B may be brought from the position shown in zoo Fig". 2 to that shown in Fig. 1 without the operator leaving his desk. This principle I maintain as a part of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The board A, provided with an alarmbell f, the clock face and hands a, and lettered slide-paddles a magnets d, secured to the board near its upper end; sockets e, secured to the said board near its center; lettered drop-board l3, hinged to the board A, and having on its rear face armature d, and on its front face pins e; said armature cl, adapted to contact with the magnets cl; and said pins 6, adapted to contact with the sockets e, the whole adapted to be operated by an, electric battery G, wires and switch, sub- JOHN J. COWIIIG. \Vitnesses L. B. THOMAS, \VALTEP. SHANNON. 

